The Beginning of the End

The Beginning of the End
World-Level	Peach's Castle-Castle 2
World	Peach's Castle
Game	New Super Mario Bros. 3
Time Limit	700 seconds
Notes	The player must choose which doors to go through to get to Bowser.

The Beginning of the End is a level in New Super Mario Bros. 3. It can be accessed by the completion of Defeat the Real Bowser.

Layout

Inside is a hallway with four doors numbered 1 to 6. Each door leads to a different room with enemies and obstacles that vary depending on which door was selected.

• Door 1: A room with skewers, Podoboos, and Bony Beetles.
• Door 2: A room with lava pits and three way corridors, of which only one is the correct path, much like in Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.
• Door 3: A maze with many blocks, Whomps, Super Whomps, and Bone Ferreasels. A 1-up mushroom and feather are hidden in the room.
• Door 4: A room full of Gray Bowser Statues that shoot fireballs and Gold Bowser Statues that pursue the player.
• Door 5: Platforms with Lil' Sparkies and Hotheads.
• Door 6: A room with Chargin' Chucks that jump at the player.

All four rooms then lead to another hallway with another four doors, this time numbered 7 to 12. The enemies and obstacles will again vary depending on which door is selected.

• Door 7: A room with Dry Bones, Super Dry Bones, Parabones, and Super Parabones that throw bones at the player, Ninjis, Thwomps, two Thwimps, and Super Thwomps.
• Door 8: A room with Grinders, Bone Piranha Plants, Big Bone Piranha Plants, Bone Goombas, and Bone Paragoombas.
• Door 9: Fences with Climbing Koopas and flying Podoboos.
• Door 10: An underwater room with Fishbones, Ball 'n' Chains, and spikes.
• Door 11: A room with Rocket Engines, Bob-ombs and Chuckyas.
• Door 12: A room with a Snake Block, Firebars, Spiked Balls.

After the second set of doors, the Impostor Queen will appear and try to blast the player. In order for the player to dodge, they must go behind the walls although the platforms are moving. If the player is shot, they will temporarily turn to stone. Near the middle of the section, there will be sets of Donut Lifts. Then the player will enter the room to the final battle.

The final battle is the same as in The Final Battle from New Super Mario Bros. U. The player gets a checkpoint right after the gate and gets three Item Blocks containing two Fire Flowers and a Cape Feather. After the player gets the power-ups, they must go up the steps and dodge the fireballs that Bowser hucks out and then finally battle Bowser. Like most of the previous games, Mario must get past Bowser and press the ! Switch to cause an ax to cut the bridge Bowser is standing on, making him crash into the pit below. After the player moves on to the final part, the Impostor Queen equips Bowser's Koopa Clown Car with its boxing gloves.

The last part of the course is a boss battle with the Bowser in his Koopa Clown Car equipped with its boxing gloves. Unlike the first three encounters, however, the player must directly harm Bowser by throwing Koopa Shells at him. After doing this three times, Bowser and is defeated and Faker is turned back to normal. However, if the player manages to complete collect all Star Coins on every main world, Faker will appear, and she'll have to be fought in the next level.

Star Coins

Unlike other levels, the player is given the choice of what Star Coin (one for each door) he or she wants to find.

• Star Coin 1: One star coin is found in one of the first six doors.
  • Door 1: The player must jump over the shorter spiked pillar that comes down even faster before it comes up even faster.
  • Door 2: In the second part of the castle, after jumping on the platforms in the correct order (middle, top, then bottom), the player must Ground Pound the Brick Blocks, get up the stairs and run down the stairs and then duck before entering the small opening to collect the third Star Coin.
  • Door 3: Caped Mario or Whited Cape Mario is required to get this Star Coin.
  • Door 4: The player must triple jump on the gray bowser statue to get it.
  • Door 5: The player must jump on a platform to get this Star Coin surrounded by the platforms.
  • Door 6: The player must either jump on a Chargin' Chuck or use the cape form or find a hidden block to get this Star Coin.
• Star Coin 2: One star coin is found in one of the last six doors.
  • Door 7: Between two Thwimps is a Brick Block. Above the Brick Block is a invisible block that can be used as leverage to reach the second Star Coin.
  • Door 8: The second Star Coin can be found right after the section with giant Grinders, being guarded by two Bone Piranha Plants on a platform with Grinders.
  • Door 9: The second Star Coin is located above a fence with a Climbing Koopa.
  • Door 10: The second Star Coin can be easily collected at the start of the main area of the level. However, it's guarded by two Fishbones.
  • Door 11: This Star Coin is found underneath several unbreakable stone blocks under the first two red pipes releasing Bob-ombs. Mario will have to light up and carry a Bomb-omb to the stone blocks to break them and then carry another and drop it down to the Star Coin.
  • Door 12: On the ledge where the Spiked Ball fell from is the second Star Coin.
• Star Coin 3: In a section after the second and final set of doors on the first set of Donut Lifts in the middle, the player must ride down one of the two middle Donut Lifts to get the coin. Immediately after getting the coin, the player must jump off the Donut Lift and go to another one.

Enemies

• Skewers
• Lava Bubbles
• Bony Beetles
• Whomps
• Big Whomps
• Bone Ferreasels
• Gray Bowser Statues
• Gold Bowser Statues
• Lil' Sparkies
• Hotheads
• Chargin' Chucks
• Ninjis
• Dry Bones
• Super Dry Bones
• Parabones
• Super Parabones
• Thwomps
• Thwimps
• Super Thwomps
• Grinders
• Bone Piranha Plants
• Big Bone Piranha Plants
• Bone Goombas
• Bone Paragoombas
• Climbing Koopas
• Fishbones
• Ball 'n' Chains
• Spikes
• Rocket Engine
• Bob-ombs
• Firebars
• Spiked Balls
• Boss: Bowser

Trivia

• The music which plays during the set of doors and the final part before the final battle is a slightly more evil-sounding remix of the Peach's Castle theme, which also just so happens to be the same music that plays in the Impostor Queen's Castle itself.
• It is one of the two levels in the entire game to have two Checkpoint Flags, the other being Reznor's Airship.